Divestment Activists and Anti-Vaxxers Cut from the Same Cloth

American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle penned a letter to the editor of The Dallas Morning News. The text of the letter is below:

The recent measles outbreak at Disneyland helped shine a light on the lethal ideology of anti-vaxxers who deny the science on vaccines.

Another group of activists recently descended on cities across the country to peddle a potentially more dangerous notion: to pressure Americans into divesting any stocks or bonds they own in companies that produce natural gas, oil or coal.

If successful, the fossil-fuel divestment movement would take America back to a time before modern medicine could control the spread of deadly viruses like measles and polio. In other words, divesting from fossil fuels means divesting from modern medicine — and modern life.

Natural gas, for instance, generates 46 percent of Texas’ electricity, but the fuel is also a key feedstock for many medical devices. As just one example, polymers made from natural gas are used to create the syringe tips that administer life-saving vaccines.

The same is true of oil. In addition to fueling our cars, petrochemicals are used to make acetylsalicylic acid — aspirin — the main ingredient in many over-the-counter pain relievers.

Finally, coal supplies 32 percent of Texas’ electricity. It also has numerous public health applications: Kidney dialysis machines, for example, are made from activated carbon, which comes from coal. The list goes on.

Anti-vaxxers and divestment activists are cut from the same cloth. Their ideas deny reality and cause needless pain and suffering. Texans should inoculate themselves against the divestment delusion.